How to Make an American Quilt

There are only two reasons to watch this film: Winona Ryder's wonderful (as usual) performance, and Janusz Kaminski's spectacular cinematography.

Ryder breathes life into Finn Dodd, portraying her as a charming, intelligent, and highly sensitive young woman struggling to define what love and commitment mean to her. Ryder is one of those few actresses who is able to relay a world of meaning in just her facial expressions alone. She's mesmerizing to watch onscreen.

Added to Ryder's enchanting performance is Academy Award winning cinematographer Janusz Kaminski's beautiful, flowing images. There are many tiresome flashback sequences in this film, but they are all worth seeing just for the artistic value of the photography. Kaminski makes wonderful use of fluid camera movements and grainy filters to capture the essence of each time and place portrayed. It's no wonder Kaminski won an Academy Award for his work in Schindler's List and will most likely win another for Saving Private Ryan.

Other than these elements, this film has very little going for it. The screenplay is muddled and jumpy, and there are far too many characters with far too many inconsequential flashback sequences that say very little about the nature of either love or commitment. The story concerns nothing more than a bunch of old women sharing completely one-sided and sexist sob stories. Like The Joy Luck Club and Waiting to Exhale, this film portrays men as little more than duplicitous, moronic, emotionally immature children who are incapable of either expressing true love or loyalty. It is a completely shallow look at adult human relationships and has nothing new or profound to say about anything.

As a male supporter of feminism and feminist artistic expression, it saddens me that films like this are, first of all, even made, and then marketed as movies that modern women should see and even cherish. There are many far better films about women and their unique experiences, the most recent one being a small film called High Art, written and directed by Lisa Cholodenko and starring Ally Sheedy in one of 1998's best performances.

When Berkeley graduate student Finn decides to spend some time away from her live-in boyfriend, and moves in with her grandmother and great aunt for the summer, while finishing her master's thesis, she gets an important and heart-warming lesson about love and commitment. Finn's grandmother and great aunt are members of a quilting bee, and their group (whose members have known each other for a long time) decide that their latest project should have the theme of "where love resides." As the quilt is made, each woman remembers significant events in their lives which relate to love and the joy and pain that it brings. Each woman brings her own perspective to the nature of love, from Anna (who signs off on men completely after a bad experience)to her daughter Marianne (who cannot settle on just one man). Some of the women have been cheated on, some have done the cheating, while others just let love die.

Along the way, Finn faces temptation in the form of Leon, a smoldering hunk who pursues her in spite of knowing that she is taken. At the same time, Finn must come to terms with her parents' failed marriage, as she decides whether to accept her boyfriend's marriage proposal.

Inspite of the pains that the women have suffered in the name of love, the movie does not in any way bash love or marriage (which has recently become popular). It is a beautifully made film, and while it is definitely a "chick flick," it might also appeal to the more romantically minded guy.

A very moving, beautifully-crafted film. As I have not read the book, I am unable to compare the two. But the movie is enough: the acting is wonderful, although we get only snippets of each actress/actor. The message is wonderful, and the soundtrack is equally touching. I would recommend this to anyone in love, or making a decision about love. Inspiration is abundant in this film about a young woman about to get married and in the process of building a house with her fiance. As she takes the summer away from him to write a thesis and stay with her Grandmother and Great Aunt, she finds them in the middle of making a quilt for her wedding. She also finds a very attractive young man, tempting her to cheat. What follows are stories told by and about each of the women in the quilting circle. The young women discovers that love is not perfect, and that you must take advantage of what you have, and that there is beauty in the known.

Love, development and maturity all form the embroidery for this "more than a Hollywood drama piece" quilt, with stitching that matches the craftily, skilfully and fruitfully detailed needlework. From the needle of a great, star-laden ensemble, the patterns have been carefully but imaginatively sown into the wool - from a powerful exploration of human relationships to the torture of love, the journeys of women and the revelations of grief and new beginnings - there are many materials and colours used to form this quilt, and there is something that will appeal to everyone. Just like an American quilt, you too seem to become apart of the amazing, cathartic story lines, which weave together to make this cinematic masterpiece. It is evident that the embroiderer clearly knows how to make an American Quilt!

I have watched parts of this movie more than once. The movie from start to finish only once. Each story unfolds like a facet on the quilt. Then as the main plot line draws to a conclusion, the thread that binds these stories together resolves each individual facet, to complete the whole.

Quilting as I understand it, is bringing many contributions together to create a final product. Each little design tells a story and the master quilter put's these stories together , to convey a theme or message.

I have not read the novel, but the movie conveys the message in it's title.

The soundtrack is tranquil and adds to the mood.

The interplay between Burstyn and Bancroft is a pleasure to watch. Winona is excellent.